Mehran Mehrabian, a deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) said on Monday that the country is in no rush to execute CryptoRial.
He made the remarks while speaking to reporters when asked to comment about the fate of a long-awaited central bank digital currency (CBDC), IRNA news agency reported.
Few days earlier, Peivast Magazine quoted another CBI official who said that the project has already past its pilot stages and is set to be launched on February 7.
Also on September 21, the Central Bank of Iran said on that it would begin the pilot launch of CryptoRial as the bank’s digital currency the next day.
Mehrabian said that CryptoRial has gone operational as of September and different security and technical measures are being carried out in inter-bank networks to prevent any possible problem.
The digital currency is in its pilot stage and new people are gradually joining it, the official said, adding that “we are in no rush in this regard and such measures are taken gradually all across the world.”
Mehrabian said that some transactions have been carried out by means of CryptoRial, while noting that the number of such transactions has been limited.
Based on what is known about the CBI crypto agenda, the digital currency is not designed to compete with global cryptocurrencies. Unlike bitcoin and other cryptos, CBDCs are centralized, not anonymous and in accord with anti-money laundering requirements.
The move seeks to help expand financial inclusion and function as a powerful tool for the CBI to compete with other stable coins globally.
The CBI has said that the aim of designing the crypto-rial is to turn banknotes into a programmable entity.
One of the main features of this digital currency is said to be its high security.
Crypto-rial has been designed in a way that it is easy to track and even if the data on the smart phones are hacked, the crypto-rial can be tracked.